Mooney_Driver wrote:
which rely on representatives to do the actual job of governing
The problem is the polititians far too often ignore the fact that they are voted in as a REPRESENTATIVE and then vote as a delegate. Perhaps a couple of legal changes would also help
1) If you do not pay taxes then you cannot have a vote
2) Make the manifestos have the force of law behind them instead of being able to be ignored.
Both very controversial I know and I have no idea how one would implement either.
Fenland_Flyer – but what about students at University (perhaps of any age)?
Fenland_Flyer wrote:
If you do not pay taxes then you cannot have a vote
In what way would that “help”?
On another subject (can we debate two at the same time?) I must admit I dont fully understand all this tariff stuff with the news today of American imposing tariffs on our steel (and others).
I have often thought there are some widely strange policies on inter country tax collection – for example anything coming here from the States for personal use is subject to VAT (a form of tax which makes buying stuff on eBay etc arguably less attractive, and the one that annoys me the most, which is the number of countries that impose a visa charge on tourists (the ESTA for example) which is really nothing more than a tax on tourism, whereas we do not. If I were in Government the first thing I would do is introduce a similar visa for anyone wishing to come here as it seems to me it is a lovely little earner that would put no one off and wonderfully easy and inexpensive to adminster.
I appreciate these are rather trivial examples with regard to the wider picture but each in its own way a form of protectionism that has presumably been allowed to develop – as I say at the first mention of an ESTA for UK citizens I would have immediately returned the favour for US citizens!
For a country which is dependent on tourism and international trade to put up an upfront barrier to entry seems mad to me.
Much/most US tourism is internal (as I know from being in Yellowstone at the moment, where the only foreign accents are from a few waiters, and precious few of them.)
Timothy wrote:
For a country which is dependent on tourism and international trade to put up an upfront barrier to entry seems mad to me.
ESTA costs $14 per person for multiple trips within a two year period. It serves as a very basic security barrier for countries not requiring a formal visa. $4 goes to process the paper and provide that barrier, and $10 into a fund that advertises US tourism internationally. I can see the logic: any security barrier will turn off tourists but whether it costs them $4 or $14 won’t make much difference. So charge $14 and use the proceeds for advertising to mitigate the negative impact created by the security process.
Timothy wrote:
For a country which is dependent on tourism and international trade to put up an upfront barrier to entry seems mad to me.
Fair point – but does it actually? Can you really imagine anyone not coming because of a small visa charge and if that was the reason they aint going to spend much when they arrive, so perhaps better they dont bother?
Seems to me it also a nice little earner for the country based “agents” – how many people have ended up paying an agent for an ESTA? Plenty I know have been caught, and I probably only didnt because I was warned!
Silvaire – I also cant really imagine many people not coming becasue of the hassle. Dont we decide we need / would like to go to X and arent that surprised these days if we need a visa. It is a bonus to then be able to do it on line. Some countries just charge you when you arrive and issue the visa (Egypt), some charging you an exit tax (Trinidad and Tobago), some have different rates depending where you are from (Australia) and so it goes on.
After all they get all sorts of freebies when they get here which many other countries also dont provide – free admission to Galleries, Museums (last time I checked the Natural History for example was free but AMNH $22, the lists goes on.
- and after all if other countries think they need to do some securities checks before jolly holiday maker sets off, shouldnt we be doing the same? (even if I am pretty cynical about what checks actually occur).
A Filipino colleague of mine was just charged £650 for a visa application and the application was turned down.
Peter wrote:
Oh I nearly forgot, the stock market rose by some 20% immediately
Of course it did, the fall in the pound made shares 20% cheaper to foreign investors so they all piled in (many FTSE100 companies derive most of their income from abroad). If you measure the FTSE100 after that rally against the global reserve currency (US dollar) it still where it was before Brexit. Some people picked up some real bargains, too – including Softbank who bought out ARM International for a bit of welcome discount (the crowning jewel of Britain’s computing industry).
